On Sunday, August 13, 2017, the Camporee Committee met to discuss the upcoming camporee at the Lafayette, Indiana Subaru Plant. This camporee will include a plant tour Friday evening, October 6, 2017. The tours will leave at three different times throughout the evening. The last tour will end close to midnight.

Overview picture of entire Subaru Automotive of Indiana campusZoom in on recreational area where camporee will focus

The plant will be shutting down at midnight for a two-week line maintenance cycle. Consequently, the timing for when we can tour is extremely tight.

This means that troop arrivals will be pressed against the need to go on the tour.

Each troop’s Key 3 (COR, chair and scoutmaster) should have received emails with more details on planned events (like plan tours) and possible events (like merit badge topics addressed). Here is the information shared before the meeting. Updates are forthcoming.

The meeting had a lively debate about the balance between patrol competitions, advancement, and participating in unique scouting events. These all reflect adult opinions or second-hand information from scouts transmitted through adults.

All scoutmasters encouraged to talk to their Patrol Leader Council about what their members like to see in camporee.

Subaru offers a lot of opportunity for merit badge work on Automotive Maintenance and Traffic Safety with a dolop of Truck Transportation. While these are all possible, some troops’ adults expressed concern that advancement would push aside patrol competition. The committee took those concerns to heart and is looking at how competitions could be used to complete some of the merit badge work simultaneously. Essentially making learning fun.

There were a lot more details shared at the meeting, so expect more information in the coming weeks. This is just a quick report and summary. The simple version is Friday, October 6, 2017 from 6:00 pm to Sunday, October 8, 2017, be there.

If you have feedback, please share it with the camporee committee and make sure that you have a representative at the next camporee committee meeting (scheduling forthcoming).